Free Maria Butina

For more than 200 years, Russia and the United States have shared a multi-faceted diplomatic relationship, at one point even sharing a land border when Russia had a settlement at Fort Ross, California. Over this period, the two countries have competed for political and economic influence, and cooperated to meet mutual global challenges.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the Cold War, the U.S.-Russian relationship took on a new dimension, and contacts between our citizens expanded rapidly in number and diversity. Russians and Americans work together on a daily basis, both bilaterally and multilaterally, in a wide range of areas, including combating the threats of terrorism, nuclear arms proliferation, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and other global challenges. Not surprisingly, there remain issues on which our two governments do not agree, but advocating for stronger relations between the two countries should not, and cannot be a crime.

By now, the exploits of Maria Butina, an alleged Russian agent, are everywhere: according to the charges filed against her by the Justice Department, the 29-year-old used a combination of effervescent charm and gun-rights activism to work her way through the conservative movement, eventually growing close to the leadership of the National Rifle Association. This, federal prosecutors allege, was part of a Kremlin plot to infiltrate the right—and, by extension, the highest levels of government—and build back channels between high-ranking conservatives and Russian officials. (According to several associates from her graduate program at American University, she wasn’t very good at—or concerned with—hiding her intentions.)

So this leaves us with the question, are the Russian intelligence services so bad at what they do as to have a "spy" openly and publically advocate for improved U.S.-Russian relations, or is this the case of a Russian graduate student (at American University) expressing a political opinion and being jailed as a spy?
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